A broken car window outside Parker’s 
campaign headquarters.

OAKLAND MAYOR Don Perata broke his silence Wednesday morning by endorsing Bryan Parker for mayor. However, to receive “The Don’s” support Parker had to travel to Perata’s Orinda office for the announcement. During a short press conference, Perata again lashed out at ranked-choice voting as being the cause for his upset loss in the 2010 Oakland mayor’s race.

Parker’s Facebook page also reported the back window of the candidate’s Porsche was smashed Wednesday afternoon in the parking lot adjacent to campaign headquarters.”This is why we fight!” the posting declared.

Several mayoral candidates will met tonight in what may be the final forum before Election Day next Tuesday. This forum has a specific theme not featured in the past two dozen or so events–the future of Oakland’s sports franchises. The forum begins at 6 p.m. at the Lakeshore Avenue Baptist Church.

ASSEMBLY DISTRICT 15 There is no greater political mystery this fall than why a well-financed independent expenditure committee backed in part by Big Oil would want to back Tony Thurmond. As a former member of the Richmond City Council Thurmond was anything but friendly to local viceroy Chevron. Conspiracy theories, aside, the IE named Alliance for California’s Tomorrow has now spent $290,000 in support of Thurmond, through Oct. 28, according to finance reports.

ASSEMBLY DISTRICT 20 Assemblymember Bill Quirk and Republican challenger Jaime Patino met Tuesday night in San Lorenzo for likely one of the last candidate’s forums of the fall season. Patino’s chances for upsetting the first-time assembly member are very slim. And it’s not going to help that the domain name for his campaign web site as expired. According to GoDaddy.com, the domain patinofor20thassembly.com expired Oct. 26 and is pending renewal or deletion.

CONGRESS DISTRICT 17 As a child, Rep. Mike Honda spent time in Japanese American internment camps. A hero for many Japanese Americans, himself, this week, Honda took time to laud the accomplishments of San Francisco Giants left fielder Travis Ishikawa, who’s walk-off homer sent the team to the World Series last week. In a letter to the pennant-winning hero, Honda wrote, “Thank you for being such a tremendous role model for all Americans, but particularly those of Japanese descent who find special meaning in your continued success.”

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